Either way it seems fairly clear to me that Billups is not the long-term answer at PG and the team needs to really start moving forward next year. In the short-term, Billups is clearly taking a while to adapt to D’Antoni and vice versa. But, even if D’Anton and Billups end up on the same page, Billups is past his prime and his skills will only diminish over the next few years. A better solution would be to pair Toney Douglas up with maybe a less expensive veteran PG or with another developing PG who has the speed to keep up with the fast PGs the Knicks encounter night after night.

Of course, once the Knicks decide to buyout Billups this trade will look even more lopsided as they will have given up a young and developing PG, Raymond Felton and received very little in return. The Knicks, however, need to be realistic and know when it is time to move forward.

The Knicks need to concentrate on building around Amare and Carmelo this off-season and if they keep Billups they will have little cap space to work with as Billups would get $14MM if his option is picked up. They would get $11MM off the cap if they let Billups go ($14MM – $3MM buyout for Billups) and they could use that money to add some much needed size and depth.